transpiring from the fingers of the Bishop upon imposition of hands, which might invigorate the faculties, and infuse powers wanting before. But there are innumerable instances in discourses of all kinds, where the imperative mood is used without any such meaning. When St. Paul began his epistles, or a preacher concludes his sermon, with saying, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be all; among you when we say, God grant or God send; when on parting company we bid one another Good by, which is an abbreviation of God be with you, we have no thought of anything delivered, or of giving directions to receive it: it is no more than a petition or cordial wish, that the thing may happen as we express. So the expression may be understood as if it had run, May you receive that assistance of the Holy Spirit without which no good thing, more especially not this sacred office, can be performed effectually.

But the words being construed as a prayer or wish, does not make it necessary they must have no real effect beside for the whole solemnity of which this formula is a part, may still operate as a natural means of what is here called the Holy Ghost, by a very useful metonyme of the cause for the effect. We have seen in the two last Chapters, that forms, ceremonies, and sensible objects have an efficacy to strike impressions upon the mind; and produce there that disposition and vigor of sentiment which in religious matters is termed Grace. In the commerce of the world, when a man enters upon a new course of life, he considers himself in a new character, assumes different sentiments and forms, a new plan of conduct suitable thereto : the change of character must be completed by degrees, but if there be some solemn act or ceremony accompanying, it will at once give a strong turn to his thoughts, and serve as the leading idea of an association continually introducing the others, connected in train therewith, to his remembrance. For this reason the entrance upon most offices is opened with a formal investiture, from the crowning of the king down to the delivery of the staff to a constable which though intended likewise as a notification to the public, of the quality and authority of the person, yet by that very circumstance will have an additional effect upon him, when he reflects in what light he will be considered by others.

In like manner I apprehend the solemnity of investiture in the sacred function of one who considers it as the work whereto he is called of God in the sense a little before explained, and reflects that from thenceforward he will be regarded in a new character by the world, may produce in him a considerable Metanoia, a new turn of mind, a change of sentiments, aims, and schemes,

with a calm and steady but strong determination to conform his whole future conduct thereto : and thus, without magic or miracle, but by natural means, may actually convey what is figuratively called the Holy Ghost, because without his secret concurrence, the conveyance will not be complete, nor the effect of it durable. But the word Receive implies something to be done by the recipient: from whence may be gathered, that as the body and blood in the Sacrament are not verily and indeed taken by the unworthy communicant, so neither is the Holy Spirit received by him who undergoes the ceremony only, as a mere form necessary to come at the income of a living.

4. There are some people disturbed at the dignities and revenues established in the Church: if they have so contemptible an opinion of Religion as to wish it were utterly lost out of the world, there is good ground for their disturbance. But I will not suppose this of them, and as those who complain loudest are. such as would be thought very rational men, they will hardly expect the world should be well instructed by means of extraordinary illuminations, and supernatural impulse imparted to private persons, qualifying them instantaneously for the office: or if the thing were doubtful in speculation, experience testifies what wild work has been made by persons undertaking it upon those pretences. For it is well known the doctrines of Religion may be grossly misunderstood and perverted to very mischievous purposes, as well through mere ignorance, indiscretion, or hastiness of zeal, as by design. Therefore the due management of it must be allowed to be a science as difficult to be learned as any that are current in the world, as well deserving to be made the profession of a man's life, and to have a particular education suited thereto.

If we do not think a common artificer well qualified for his business without having served an apprenticeship, surely this, which is a more dangerous edge tool than the saw and the hatchet, requires an early preparation to handle it skilfully. Now if we consider how early the preparation must be begun, and the determination made, between an equipment for the shop or the pulpit, we shall quickly find it necessary that some temporal encouragement should be cast into the scale. It is a great thing, too great to be compassed, for a man mature in years, experience, and judgment, to act invariably with a cheerful industry upon the sole motive of doing service to his fellow-creatures without aid of private interest for we are but sensitivo-rational animals, incapable of attaining the Stoical love of rectitude for its own sake; to require it of us would be expecting to find us Angels instead of Men; the highest

use we can make of our understanding is to restrain the exorbitances of our desires, and choose such among them as may serve to spur us on in the prosecution of our rational designs.

But nothing of this is to be looked for in a boy who is to go to school or to an apprenticeship, neither is there one in a thousand who makes the option for himself, being generally put upon their line of life by their parents or friends and even when a lad does take a strong turn himself, if the truth were known, I believe it would appear owing to something constantly chimed in his ears, rather than his original choice. But the friends and parents have the temporal advancement of their children in view, grandeur and riches are their incitements: they consider life as a lottery, and would not venture their child in a class where there were no great prizes, for those are the necessary lures to draw in adventurers: if they propose an apprenticeship, it is a step into my Lord Mayor's coach: if the law, they have in view the great purse and the Seals; if divinity, they think of the lawn sleeves and the Lordship.

It becomes not me to pronounce upon the honors and possessions of the Church, whether they be more ample than necessary, whether properly distributed in proportion to the duties annexed, or whether rightly conferred according to the true intent of their institution. Those are matters belonging to wiser heads and higher powers. All I contend for is, that without temporal encouragements sufficiently inviting to those who have the disposal of young people, laborers would be wanting in the vineyard. I knew a very good man, a dissenter, whose son desired to be bred up to the ministry; but he would not let him, because he said there was nothing to be gotten in their way above a hundred pounds a year. Now the talents of the lad were such as, I believe, would scarce have raised him to a hundred pounds a year, if he had gone upon the established line: but the father thought higher of him; and so I suppose do most fathers.

Therefore if there were not a possibility of some considerable matters, few would be put upon the lists who were not of such unpromising genius, as that even the partiality of their friends. could not judge them fit for anything else; or in such low circumstances as that the bare exemption from bodily labor would be deemed a prize. But if it be thought that anything can be taught to read over a service intelligibly, yet I hope it will be allowed that some better qualified officers are requisite in the Church militant : for there are so many attacks made against Religion, so many misapprehensions and perversions of its doctrines, so many new vices and follies continually starting up, that plodding industry and downright probity alone cannot manage them without acuteness

and sagacity of parts improved by a compass of learning. And there is the more need to provide for store of hopeful plants, because out of every score of ingenious boys in the mother's estimation, it is good luck if one turns out an ingenious man when come abroad into the world.

Neither will acuteness of parts and depth of learning answer the purpose completely without aid of other qualifications; men of a scholastic turn are commonly too abstruse and rigid, they cast Religion into a form which is fit for nobody's wear but their own: therefore it is requisite there should be some mingled among them, who by a competent knowledge of human nature, of the manners and characters of mankind, may be able to turn the labors of the others to general use, to render speculation practical, and discern what is feasible as well as what is desirable. But discretion and knowledge of the world are not to be learned at grammar school, nor at college; they must be gotten at home, if gotten at all, from the parents or persons with whom they use familiarly to converse: whence it appears fitting there should be such prizes in the lottery, as may look tempting in the eye of families where there are opportunities of studying this science.

But lest I should give offence by thus making private interest, ambition, and vanity, the avenues to the sacred function, I shall observe, that this cannot be thought a reflection upon the order in me, who have been as little complaisant to all orders whatever among men having laid down, that private satisfaction is the constant spring of all our actions, that every man's own Good is his proper ultimate end of pursuit; deduced all the virtues, the purest love and benevolence from selfishness; and grafted the scions of Uranian Venus upon the wild stocks shot up spontaneously in the garden of Nature. For our own desires are mostly of the translated kind, having been transferred from the end to the means, which from thenceforward become an end or ultimate point of view and a translated desire generally contains a vigor and firmness proportionable to that of the original desire from whence it was transferred: therefore I see nothing should hinder the desire of advancement in the world from serving for a proper stock whereon to graft a solid and genuine piety.

The young adventurer, I suppose, will be exhorted to make himself master in his science for gaining the better credit and success therein: if he have any spirit and industry, he will endeavor to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Religion he is to teach to others; and the principal part of what he is to inculcate being a command of the passions, a preference of future happiness before present advantage, a glowing serenity of hope in the

divine Goodness, a sincere attachment to the general interest, and an unreserved charity to all mankind; to press those things by the most animating topics, and enforce them by a justness of reasoning and solidity of argument; he cannot well avoid taking a tincture of them himself in his progress. So that by continual application of his thoughts to those trains he may acquire as much indifference to worldly concerns, as pure a holiness, as strong a love of rectitude, as hearty judicious zeal to do good, as human nature, in this diseased state, and under the circumstances surrounding it, is capable of attaining. And if the student in divinity will ruminate seriously upon what has been suggested above in the second section concerning the call which is to qualify him for admission into the sacred office, I apprehend it will contribute not a little towards making the scion take good hold and imbibe the vigor and succulence of the stock which being mellowed and meliorated in the passage, may produce a plentiful crop excellent fruits.

CHAP. XXV.

ARTICLES.

GREAT outery has been made against imposing articles of belief upon men's consciences, and invading their most inviolable and unalienable rights by denying them even the liberty of thought. One would think the persons who join in this clamor were foreigners, who had just gotten some history three hundred years old, and from thence taken their idea of our constitution and polity upon what they read there of the Popish tyranny and persecutions. But I know of no imposition now put upon the conscience, nor fetters attempted to be cast upon the liberty of thought. An English gentleman may believe the world was made by chance, or the moon made of cream cheese, if he pleases: no scrutiny will be taken into his thoughts by the Courts of Justice, nor if discovered will he incur any corporal or pecuniary penalty thereby, since the writ de heretico cumburendo has been taken away. Very true, you say; a man may think what he will because you cannot hinder him by all the laws you can contrive, but then he must keep his thoughts to himself, and this it seems is a grievous